You have to face fears and doubts and uncertainty and find a way to do it anyway – without forcing yourself to do anything you’re not ready to do, or pretending that putting yourself and your ideas out there isn’t terrifying.
It’s a delicate thing.
What I have found is that the more time I can spend energetically attuning to the thing before starting the actual work, the better.? So that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks.? Attuning to the thing I want to bring to life.
And this seed is definitely ready to sprout.? It’s pushing through the soil.? In this case, the soil is me so it’s a little uncomfortable.
I’m starting to feel cranky and overwhelmed and I want to hide.
So I wanted to share that.
And say that feeling cranky and overwhelmed and like you want to hide is actually a sign of Creative Dream Incubation.
That dream is stirring and needs your attention.? And you’re in that delicate place and not feeling ready.
Which is where the cranky-overwhelm-hidey feeling comes from, from having a dream that is ready to grow and not doing anything with it.
Creativity has to be cultivated. Unused creativity is not benign, it matastizes. It?turns into grief, judgement, sorrow, and shame. We are divine beings and we are by nature creative. – Brene Brown
In other words, your Creative Dreams are doing you a favour when they make you cranky.
Because if you want until you FEEL ready, you’ll never start.
By making it increasing uncomfortable to not be doing the thing, your dream is calling you into action.
I took my crankiness to my journal where it immediately transformed into clarity and direction.
Creative Journaling is the most magic tool I know for navigating the (sometimes bewildering) path to your dream come true.
My journal always knows what I need.
This thing I’m starting that is making me cranky today?? I’m creating a free Creative Dream Journal e-course.? It’s called? Dreamtastic Creative Journals and it’s in 2 parts:
An e-course to help you get started with how to use your creative journal to bring your dreams to life.
An ongoing project for staying in the process.
And for the next week, cranky or not, I commit to writing about creative journaling for 2 hours a day to help this project come to life.
You can learn how to draw mandalas for healing, personal growth and intuitive insights - even if you're no good at drawing or have no experience with this kind of thing.
I promise!
But before I show you how, I want to say that there are actually LOTS of different kinds of mandalas, and I wish there was another term for this style of art, because calling them mandalas feels appropriative to me. What I am talking about here are mandalas as in circular drawings which represent sacred wholeness, not Buddhist Mandalas.
In this way, a mandala can actually be anything. I used to do creativity workshops where we made healing mandalas which were a simple circle drawn on a sheet of paper, filled in with collage elements to represent you personal healing journey. There are many, many ways to work with mandalas.
This is a tutorial for how to draw mandalas for people who can't draw.
Of course people who CAN draw are welcome to play along 😉
This tutorial is:
SIMPLE - you'll be able to start drawing these mandalas before you even finish reading this page
EFFECTIVE - this is a creative process that WILL yield inner results
Learning how to draw mandalas is actually less about drawing more about slowing down, being present, and opening up to your inner creative/intuitive flow.
You'll be doing simple lines and shapes that anyone can do - and it doesn't matter if your lines are crooked 😉
Pretty much ALL of my mandalas end up being kind of wobbly - that's part of their charm AND it's part of how I get the inner benefits of drawing mandalas - the healing, personal growth and intuitive insight part.
Drawing mandalas is a simple, reflective, repetitive creative practice is super good for your brain, your heart and your soul.
How To Draw Mandalas. Even if you can't draw:
We'll start with a uber-simple little Mandala so you can see how it works:
Draw a small circle.
Think of it as a compass. Add triangles that point to North, South, East and West.
Add triangle points in between North, South, East and West. Now you've got 8 spaces to play with... these are your 8 Slices Of Pie.
Add a circle to the end of each triangle. Now you're starting to see how it works...
Keep building it! Every time you add something to your Mandala, add it to each of the 8 Slices Of Pie. You can add circles, domes, triangles, squares, lines, waves and outlines... and play with different ways of doing circles, domes, triangles, squares, lines, waves and outlines. You can also make up secret symbols, totally break the rules or do anything else you want to do - it's YOUR Mandala.
This is just to get you started. Of course once you've got the hang of you, you'll choose which shapes to put where.
Or watch this longer video where I show you how to draw mandalas in detail:
The most important thing to know about how to draw a mandala for healing, personal growth and intuitive insights is to LISTEN.
Because drawing Mandalas isn't actually about drawing!
Drawing mandala is about connecting - deeply - to your inner wisdom and creative flow. Listening to what shape to put where and how to repeat it IS an intuitive practice.
It's about learning to be more intuitive and building paths so your intuition can send you messages and advice when you need it.
This is a practice that supports you in learning how to LIVE more in tune with your unique creative flow.
And it's about expressing what's going on inside you. Some days I draw angry mandalas or sleepy mandalas... but they always give me exactly the message I need to hear.
It doesn't matter what your mandalas look like - your mandalas will help you.
Of course, you need to practice drawing mandalas while listening to your inner voice.
And you need to practice a lot before you can expect to receive consistent helpful messages from your mandalas.
Practice staying present with your process. Practice listening to your inner wisdom about what to do next with your mandala. Practice noticing what FEELS right as you draw and colour.
As you practice, you'll learn how to receive (and, over time, understand!) the message behind your mandala and how it can help bring you whatever it is you need right now: healing, comfort, insights or brilliant flashes of inspiration.
All of that will NOT happen immediately - that comes with practice.
You know how amazing it is when you get just the right message at just the right time and the feeling is so electric the little hairs on your arms stand up?
I get that feeling ALL THE TIME from drawing mandalas.
I receive healing, personal growth and intuitive insights from drawing mandalas because I practice all the time.
It might take some time before you mandala practice really "clicks".
But hang in there!
I was going to say "there is magic in this practice" but that's not true. There is magic in you.
This practice can help you draw it out.
As I say in the tutorial video: learning how to draw mandalas is really about practicing listening to and acting on your intuitive voice.
And that is probably why you are so drawn to work with mandalas.
You can feel that there's a depth, an opening, a bit of magic in them.
They're not just cute little drawings.
Something deeper is happening. There is something for you here.
Your mandala is the universe speaking to you through your intuitive, creative voice.
I mean how cool is that?
The more you practice, the more clearly that voice will speak through your mandalas
I’m experimenting a bit with my routine, trying to find the places with the most flow.
I find summer heat draining.? And air conditioning obnoxious.? So finding places with any flow at all is a challenge some days.
This week I’m experimenting staying home all morning, and going for a journal picnic in the park in the afternoons.? (Usually I journal before I work because the Creative Journaling uncovers magic, activates genius and makes everything deliciously clear + easy.)
So here I was this afternoon:
And as soon as I sat down I felt STUCK.
I have been working on this new plan and noticed that I am really STUCK around moving out of planning and into doing.? I started to journal about it and very quickly my journal gave me some advice:
Over-planning is a trap you fall into while trying to avoid fear. Side effect: you also avoid your dream. Solution: Dive in. Play with your dream. Give your ideas form. Do not wait until you’ve got the “perfect plan”
Except, well, you know how it goes.? That’s great advice.? And it’s true.? And knowing that is different than being ready to act on it.
So I called in the parts of me who were ready and the parts of me who were not ready.? I gave them each space to voice their fears, concerns and desires.
And it all became clear.
There was this one beautiful space where each of their needs overlapped.
I was delighted to discover that that space was a Treasure Map.
I re-wrote my Very Serious Plan as a Treasure Map!
Then I called in the heart and soul of my dream and the heart and soul of this new project to bless, activate and magic-i-fy the Treasure Map.? And also: make sure I didn’t miss anything, and offer their advice and feedback on how to best navigate the Treasure Map.
And now tomorrow morning I don’t have to face this New Big Plan.? Instead, I get to take my first step on the Treasure Map.
Happy!? I do believe from now on I will make Treasure Maps instead of Very Serious Plans.
This summer I made a commitment to myself to draw every day.? (If you want to join me, I set up a Rainbow~licious Creative Healing Circle where you can play along for the summer)
I am so glad I am doing this!? Just doodling, not thinking or writing (much – sometimes a few words come to me at the end that want to be on the page) or planning.
Just being with myself in my creative flow.? This morning I’m listening to Steven Halpurn while I doodle – bliss.
This is opening up such a beautiful sense of spaciousness in my world.
Here’s this morning’s doodle:
Not planning means sometimes they come out pretty strange, like this one:
But those are kind of the best ones – this image came to me in a meditation a few days later and its meaning was clear then… lots of stuff is being worked out in doodletime.
Today I'm over-the-moon grateful. I'm grateful to be doing this work and for the amazing people who are showing up to do it with me. So I'm expressing gratitude with collage, drawing and painting.
This is SO super different from keeping a daily gratitude list that you have to add to every day if you're feeling grateful or not, or forcing yourself to be grateful, when you're not feeling it.
That is stupid!
As powerful and magic as authentic gratitude can be, trying to distort your feelings into what you wish you were feeling is not helpful at all.
There is a right way and a wrong way to keep a gratitude journal.
In today's video I talk about how being grateful supercharges all good things but also how forced gratitude is dangerous.
Today I'm taking what I learned in the first part of Creating Conditions for Thriving, and exploring what my next steps are, and how I want to implement them.
This is an important step in using your creative journal as a dream-growing tool!
Today I'm coming back to an old favourite: my Hello Day Creative Journal Practice.
This is a fun and creative way to plug into your magic and create more of what you want to create in your world, by filing each day up with the qualities that you want most.
Some ideas for how to create your Hello Day practice:
Today I need:
Today I am activating the Creative Superpower of:
List the qualities that are important for the day.
Today's I'm exploring what it means for me personally, to create conditions for thriving. Everyone is unique, so we all have unique conditions for thriving.
And since our perfect conditions for thriving change as we change, this is something that is good to look at regularly.
If you create the right conditions for dreams to grow in your life - then it becomes wayyyyyy easier to grow them.
So I wasn't just cranky yesterday, I was coming down with something and today I am really not feeling well.
It was nice to spend some time colouring + playing in my journal, and it's important to stay in the creative process of meeting myself where I am, even when I don't like where I am.
Today I am CRANKY and sharing how cranky journaling can help turn a cranky day around, or at least find the treasure in the cranky, or make it a little easier to be in the cranky.
Crankiness can be a natural result of setting a clear, beautiful intention - it's often a part of the process of bringing a dream to life because a clear, beautiful intention wakes up the parts of us who are afraid of change.
When this happens, dealing with the parts of you that get cranky is the next step on the path to your dream.
